Number 144: The stolen bike
by FlawlessAngel08
Summary: Earl must repay a man whom he stole a bike and set it on fire. He discovers that not only did he steal his bike but it is his fault that the man is now in a wheelchair. please R
1. One mistake leads to another

My name is earl: Number 144

"Randy pick one" "Uh ok Earl, Number 144." Earl scanned the page "It says took a kids bike and never gave it back" "Is that the one that you poured oil over and set of fire?" "Yes it is randy." _I stood there remembering my primary school days. Me and Randy like most kids always wanted a tree house of our very own. To throw water balloons at the kids next door and run away when we got grounded for playing a prank on Mr Glibber. We tried to make one on our own but it ended up no more than battered dog house. This one kid we knew, Hamish Grey was his name, had a tree house made by his father- his father was a builder. Of course my Dad wouldn't help me; he just said" a tree house is a piece of junk any way". We asked Hamish if he would let us up but would always say" members only" and point to the sign he made especially for me. Because we weren't allowed in his tree hut we thought it would be fair to take his bike. Of course he noticed it was gone and had rung the authorities. We figured that our house would be the first place they would look. Turns out we were right but by the time they had got there the bike was already in ashes. I guess now I have to pay him back for all the bike–less summers._

They got out of the old car and approached the old house that had been refurnished and made new. A man came out in a wheel chair. He had muddy brown hair and beady black eyes. He looked up at them though his blue rimmed glasses that fitted his face perfectly.

He had a sad look on his face as he saw the two, possibly remembering what they had done. "Can I help you?" He said staring at the ground. "Yes I'm Earl Hickey I went to the same primary school as you" "What do you want?" "I have written a list of all the bad things I've ever done on this piece of paper. One by one I'm making it up to the people I have hurt so I can cross them off my list. It's Karma that's why my life was so bad". "What do you need me for?" "Do you remember that bike of yours that went missing? I stole it and set it on fire." "That was you?" "Yes but I bought you a new bike but I guess you can't use it for a while" he said bleakly. "For a while try never! The man was fuming." Because of you I haven't been able to feel my legs since I was 10!" "But I only stole your bike?" Earl stated with confusion." You stole my life when you took that bike. I was never an athletic kid and could not run very fast. My bike was the only way I could escape the Satans. You know what happened to kids who didn't. There were kids who died from broken spines. I was lucky to escape with paralysis for the hips down. This is what you did to me earl no bike can fix that. I still have nightmares from that day. I can never feel my legs again" "Is there anything I can do?" "No please leave" "Randy this is going to be harder than I thought." They left the house worried that earl may not be able to ever write this off his list.

"Hey Earl why don't we be his legs you know carry him around, go to places he was never able to go to before?" "What a great idea Randy". They set of for the wheel chair guy's house with high hopes and once they arrived told him of their plan for redemption. "So you'll do anything?" "Yep anything you want" "How about you start painting my fence and tidying up my back yard". The two boys worked for hours on end dong chores for the disabled man. For a whole day they were ordered to pick up packages, paint fences, clean the house, take out the trash and cook meals which they could not eat themselves. It was torture but they still pressed on because they knew they had to get number 144 crossed off the list. There always seemed to be things to do. They were doing heavy labour while the man just sat back watching TV and didn't seem to notice them at all.

After a long days work they were finally finished. Which was just as well since Both Randy and Earl were exhausted. The golden sun beaded heavily on their bodies and they sat down for a minute to catch their breath. "That was hard work how long are we going to be doing this earl?" "Don't worry randy I'm sure he will forgive us now. Earl approached the man that he had been slaving for. "I guess I can cross you off my list now right?" "What do you mean cross me off your list? You think one day of work is enough to repair one life time of paralysis? You will have to a lot more than that! Come around tomorrow at seven sharp and we will see about crossing me off that list of yours!" He shouted as he slammed the door shut. "Aww man! Randy uttered. Do you think he's ever going to forgive you? Because I don't think I can take much more of this." "Let's hope so randy". They returned home unvictorious and worn out. Wanting to give up.

_Beep, beep, Beep, beep. _Earl glanced at the alarm and turned it onto snooze._ "_Its six am. Time to get up Randy". "Aw why can't we come in later?" "Mr Grey said to be there by seven Randy". "Ok" he said getting out of bed reluctantly.

"We're here what do you need?" The house looked a hundred times better since Earl and randy had spruced it up but still he demanded more work to be done.

"Its about time did you know that you are one minute late! Never mind I have lots of things for you to do. I need you to pick up my dry cleaning, fix up my roof, put up my satellite, pick up some parcels, paint the walls, make some shelves and the list went on and on. It seemed like they had been there for an eternity and not once had he said thank you. At the end of the day Earl had once more asked if he could cross the man off his list but was denied. "I'm still not sure I can forgive you, come back tomorrow".

Again they had the door slammed in their faces. "What an ass" Randy cursed at the man. "I did ruin his life Randy I owe him." "Cant you just leave this one for later? My back is killing me. If I have to work for him one more time I'll shoot him". "Randy we can't stop now" "Face it Earl he'll never forgive you. He just wants us to do more work for him." "He needs us Randy look how miserable he is" They looked over through the window to see him laughing on the phone. "Doesn't look miserable to me, just cross him off our list", randy demanded as he reached for the list. "No" Earl replied as he pulls the yellow paper in which he wrote all his bad deeds away from Randy.

As they are struggling they hear the man talking on the phone saying: "Yeah I tricked them real good. They think I'm some guy that's life got ruined because they stole my bike when I was a kid. The best part is I've got them doing all sorts of stuff for me and I don't have to lift a finger. Yeah I've never met them before. They come up to my door step asking for forgiveness so they can cross me off their list of things they did wrong. So I say no just because I felt like being mean and they come back saying they will do anything I want. I just made up a story about how they ruined my life saying if my bike wasn't stolen I wouldn't be paralysed. Yeah this was way easier than coning people out of their life savings."

_At that moment I realised that I had been conned and all the hard work I had done was for a man I didn't know. Number 144 would have to stay on the list. Randy was still angry he had to do all that work for nothing. I felt bad that Hamish grey was still out there and has never gotten his bike back. We decided to find him and expose the conn artist that used us. _


	2. How to catch a con artist

Chapter 2

_We though it wouldn't be hard to catch the criminal in action because he never found out we could hear every word he was saying. All we needed to do was drive straight to the police office and tell them everything._

"So you're saying that this man said he was this Hamish Grey guy and you worked for him because you wanted to cross him off your list and you want him in jail because you did all that work for nothing?" the police man questioned. "That's right". The police man laughs while talking, "You can't arrest a man because you never asked for money when you offered to do work for him." "But he's a con man we heard him on the phone!" "How many times have you been arrested earl? How are we supposed to believe you? For all we know this is an elaborate scheme to distract us while you commit another felony. "I've changed. Honestly, earl pleaded. Since I've learned about Karma I have become a better man. I wrote a list of all the bad things that I have done and put it on this list see? There is number 144; took a kids bike and never gave it back". "Look Earl I'd love nothing more than to arrest this guy but I'm going to need some evidence of this so called con man. And this evidence better be real, I'm not going to fall for any prank calls saying _I did it arrest me_" "How are we going to catch this guy? I think he'll notice if we have a video camera in his face" It was hopeless. If the police could not help them how could they out smart the guy. There plan wasn't going to work so Earl and Randy decided they should let someone else catch this con man as they believed they couldn't.

Late at night earl had a dream. He imagined he was in the future and all of the numbers on his list were crossed of. He was finally rid of all the bad karma he had been accumulating since he was a small kid. Life was paradise (except for the part where he has to go to work everyday). It was all over, no more jail, no more felonies, just Earl being a regular person. He had changed for the better good; he was dressed in a suit and tie ready to go out on a date with his beautiful girlfriend of two years about to propose to her at a lovely restaurant and suddenly something changed.

The list was send flying at him from nowhere. He looked down at it. "There's nothing left". Red writing appeared on the yellow sheet of paper _turn over. _On the other side of the page in big bold lettering showed **Number 144: took a kids bike and never gave it back**. "But I'm sure I did that one". The con artist in the wheel chair entered the room laughing maniacally. "It's too late now Earl, you should have caught me when you had the chance." "You tricked me! You're a fake a con artist" No one will believe you now that you're rotting in a jail cell." "You're the one who should be in jail" I haven't done anything so why would I be in jail?" "Look around you there's steel bars in front, the walls are small constricting. Steel bars appear in front of Earl creating a wall between him and his girlfriend. The concrete walls moved in on him like a lion moving in on its prey. "You can hear the other inmates grinding the walls and yelling at the top of their lungs trying to get out. You feel the hardness of the old beds which you must sleep in. You can see your inmate angry and looking for a victim to pulverise. You hate the filthy, slimy, disgusting grub they give you to eat every single day. "You, you did this to me!" Laughter echoed in the background.

Everything he had was slowly fading away. His girlfriend left him for some rich guy in Texas, which she late got married to. His friends disappeared one by one because they were disappointed and though he had changed. He was a full time criminal and got caught stealing a 24 carrot diamond ring which was coincidentally the engagement ring he had supposedly brought. Even Randy couldn't forgive him as he had been there helping Earl though the list and couldn't believe that he was back to the same old Earl. Suddenly he woke up. It was a dream, but it had felt so real. Earl made it a point to try harder in fear that his nightmare could really happen.

_When we realised we were too inexperienced to catch the faker Randy and I decided to rent out some police movies. I figured we could learn everything we needed to know from the law enforcement videos._

Randy sat down and placed a large bowl of popcorn on the arm of the sofa and guzzled it down at a fast speed. Meanwhile Earl was busy writing down notes and studying the film as if he were about to write a review on it. "Hey earl maybe we can put him in an interrogation room", randy said after watching a suspect being grilled for information.

It was too bad Catalina wasn't there too give them advice because she was away on holiday in Spain. They had thought of "borrowing" some equipment from the police station but thought it a bad idea since he had already had enough trouble with the cops and didn't like the idea of another two years in prison. Plus Earl would have to write it on his list the object that got them in this mess in the first place (not that the list was a bad thing of course).

They spent the rest of the day coming up with a plan to face the Con Man and before too soon they had fallen asleep and awoken the next day. It was seven in the morning when they arrived at the house the exact time they were suppose to. They were still very sleepy from staying up late the night before. They were greeted by the man whose identity was unknown. It was all the same, doing back breaking work for free but this time they had given the man a present. It was a small basket with all sorts of treats including a cute little teddy bear. But this was no ordinary toy. Inside was a camera that peeped through one of the bears golden brown eyes. They worked a fast as they could to incise the man to make a call. They secretly watched his every move and kept a mobile phone that had the video adaptation on it with them. When they left Earl again asked if he could be forgiven (just to act non suspicious) and was denied this time to the relief of Earl and Randy.

They began watching the tape but the teddy bear was placed in a corner so it was hard to see anything. He was watching a game of footy and it sounded like his team had won 30-12. He was eating chicken teriyaki and was singing the I like chicken to night song in agreement with his food. There was no evidence at all of the tape and they wondered whether he had figured out that they were watching. "Do you think he knows" "I don't think he would be dancing like that if he did, Earl replied laughing at his current entertainment. If this doesn't work it will make a great home video." Hours later when they had almost fell asleep from boredom they heard a voice talking about a healthcare scam. "We've got fifty people on board all ready and we've just started. Imagine how mush money we'll get. We could be rich!" Finally they had found their evidence and headed for the station with the tape in hand.

They arrived at the police station late in the night when it was dark and gloomy.

The cells were full of drunk drivers and robbers pleading to be let out.

"Officer I've got your proof" "what really? Well let's see it." He was handed the tape and began watching. "This is a joke! I knew it! This is nothing more than a video for America's funniest homes!" The officer said trying to sound serious but could help jumping into huge fits of laughter at the man dancing with his soccer ball.

_Once we had finished the movie the cops surrounded the con mans house and took him straight to jail. We were asked to tell our story to the local news channel. We were called heroes as we had saved many people from being tricked out of their money. It turned out that Hamish Grey had been watching and decided to pay us a visit. He said he needed no apology because when I stole his bike he started making them himself. He now owns a bike store across town. Number 144 could be crossed off my list all because of the con man that tricked us. _


End file.
